Terrestrische Paläoklimatologie

Water Reptiles Hall

The world of the Jurassic sea is the topic of this hall. Numerous skeletons of Ichthyosaurs from the Posidonia Shale Formation are presented here, in addition to a row of marine crocodiles, plesiosaurs, fishes, and sharks which lived between 200-145 million years ago in Germany and England.

Among them are large opportunistic feeders like the Temnodontosaurus, up to 15 m long, also fossils of the Coelacanths, living fossils. In one side room is a skeleton of the Placondont Henodus, a reptile, which has only been found locally so far, in the region at Tübingen/Lustnau.

Several skeletons of flying reptiles complete the display of findings from the Jurassic sea. Beyond that in the side room, two six meter long Mosasaurs, large predators of the Cretaceous, are displayed as well.

Skeletons of Ichthyosaurs from the Jurassic sea: Eurhinosaurus longirostris and skull of Temnodontosaurus trigonodon from the Posidonia Shale Formation of Holzmaden and Frittlingen, together with the skeleton of Ophthalmosaurus icenicus from the Middle Jurassic of Fletton, Great Britain (Photo: W. Gerber).
Complete skeleton of the Tuebingen `Turtle-Faced Single Tooth´ Henodus chelyops from the Gipskeuper of Tuebingen-Lustnau (Photo: W. Gerber).
Skeletons of sea reptiles from the Middle Jurassic of Great Britain (left to right: Liopleurodon ferox, Cryptoclidus eurymerus – above, Peloneustes philarchus – below) (Photo: W. Gerber).
Skeletons of marine crocodiles from the Lower, Middle and Upper Jurassic (Photo: W. Gerber).